"A [preacher] who does not love art, poetry, music and nature can be dangerous. Blindness and deafness toward the beautiful are not incidental; they are necessarily reflected in his [preaching]." — BXVI

14 March 2013

Sweep the stables, Holy Father!

"The new Pope, the 76-year old Argentinean Jesuit,
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, was Ratzinger’s main contender in the last
Conclave. He is unusual in that he has always rejected posts in the
Roman Curia and only visited the Vatican when it was absolutely
necessary. One thing he hates to see in the clergy is 'spiritual worldliness': ecclesiastical careerism disguised as clerical refinement."

Next
to the sexual abuse scandals, ecclesiastical careerism is probably one
of the most dangerous diseases infecting the Church.

It
gives birth to and nurtures secrets, lies, dysfunction, betrayal,
wheeling-dealing, and factionalism. When your heart and mind are
focused on advancing your career, you aren't watching the ecclesial
bottom-line: preaching the Gospel.

Of course, it's nothing new.

It
all started with James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and their
ambitious mama. And there's really no way to cure this disease short of
the Second Coming.

However,
a pope can certainly stem the tide against the infection by appointing
people who are dedicated to serving the Church and not their own
C.V.'s.

The first step is sweep the stables!
Send those who have been in power (directly or indirectly) away from
Rome and appoint people who have no skin in the Vatican Game. In fact,
appoint people who are ready, willing, and able to ask hard questions
and demand answers.

When
the same names keep popping up year after year on the same lists of
Vatican dicasteries, you know that things are getting stale and
stalled. How can past mistakes be fixed if the people who made those
mistakes won't admit that they made them b/c doing so would hurt their
C.V.'s?

6 comments:

Ha! I got my reward for neither World Cup-rooting nor delving into the punditry...I had never heard of him and got impressed right from the get go. For all I know about him, he seems to be exactly what the Church needs now.